Windows 10 [2014 - 2017]

[Deleted member 2197]

The free Windows 10 offer is slowing PC sales, says IDC

A few weeks ago in May, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 had reached over 300 million active users. A new forecast out by the IDC, however, (via GeekWire) is now showing that Microsoft’s free Windows 10 offer is actually slowing down PC sales.

Overall, the new IDC research firm forecast projects that PC shipments worldwide are expected to fall by 7.3 percent, which is 2 percent worse than was previously projected. The outlook also calls for a, “progressively smaller decline through 2017, followed by a more stable volume in 2018.”

http://www.winbeta.org/news/free-windows-10-offer-slowing-pc-sales-says-idc

 

[Grall]

I just noticed the other day that my CPU never idles at less than 3.66GHz. With Win8, it typically idled at less than 2GHz, with periods creeping as low as 250MHz. Right now it's just 6% active and despite that running at 3.85GHz while typing into chrome. I've enabled all the power saving stuff I can find, both in windows and in UEFI bios, and still this shit.

It irks me when things aren't working smoothly, even though I'm probably not wasting all that much power. Still, I'm wasting power; the CPU fan is running super low speed, but the heatsink is also quite hot to the touch. It was barely warm when CPU idled in the past.

 

[orangpelupa]

Check the power scaling on the classic power option menu.

On my pc windows 10 suddenly set the minimum to 100 percent! Ugh.

Also try to not use chrome? Does the cpu scale properly?

 

[Albuquerque]

Btw when will Microsoft stop randomly changing settings to default in windows 10 updates?

Today suddenly I need to re-enable hibernate again. Dunno what other stuff has been changed to default.

Bleh.

I've found this a few times, which I traced back to driver updates. One day my sound card had stopped using any of the surround speakers (left and right worked, but center channel + rear channels were all "off".) Turned out Windows had pulled a new driver for my audio card without me seeing it, and the updated driver pulled all the settings back to stock.

Had it happen later with a USB driver update, where the USB interface somehow got set back to the default of allowing whatever was plugged in to wake the PC. I had it turned off, because I had a USB-connected wireless network card which would randomly wake up the box. I couldn't get the NIC to behave, so I just configured the USB hub interface to not allow the behavior. One driver update later thru Windows Updates and it went back to default.

So, check your update history and see if WSUS has been pulling down hardware updates. I kinda like it actually, saves me having to look, but can also be irritating.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The free Windows 10 offer is slowing PC sales, says IDC

http://www.winbeta.org/news/free-windows-10-offer-slowing-pc-sales-says-idc

That's pretty obvious. Free update to latest Windows slows sales of PC devices. Most consumers (not tech or computer savvy) used to upgrade their computers just to get a newer version of Windows. And not just Free but delivered in a similar way to a Windows Update (press a couple of virtual buttons and away you go) which most consumers are comfortable doing.

Heck, I made a lot of money back in the day both selling machines to those types of people as well as occasionally being able to convince them that a simple upgrade would be just as good and charging them a small fee for the labor involved. For the vast majority of people, anything made in the last 5-10 years (even Atom with Win 8/8.1/10) is more than good enough for their daily computing needs.

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

Check the power scaling on the classic power option menu.

I checked already, and it's 1% I believe.

Also try to not use chrome?

Nah, doesn't matter. CPU will step down just a hair in frequency and stay there I'm afraid. Haven't tried quitting ALL my background tasks to see what happens, but that'd be pointless because they're background tasks because they're supposed to be background tasks and I need them. Ah Microsoft, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

EDIT:
Ah, lol. So when CPU load drops to just 2%, frequency actually goes down as low as 2.95GHz... How marvelous! It's more than 2GHz faster than it used to be when I ran Win8.

I did not notice this happening for a long time because I've been running Folding@home for such a long time (and it kept my CPU constantly pegged at 100% or near it anyhow), but summertime heat has made me try to cut down on electricity useage to lower waste heat, so now I do notice.

 

[orangpelupa]

That is weird.

If you set the max cpu to 1% what happens?

 

[Grall]

I probably shouldn't try!

 

[Deleted member 2197]

Windows 10 security and privacy: An in-depth review and analysis
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2016/06/15/windows-10-security-privacy-depth-review-analysis/

PDF
http://www.welivesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/windows-10-security-privacy.pdf

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Windows 10 security and privacy: An in-depth review and analysis
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2016/06/15/windows-10-security-privacy-depth-review-analysis/

PDF
http://www.welivesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/windows-10-security-privacy.pdf

Took a quick glace through the privacy section to see if they found anything to justify people's paranoia on the internet. And as suspected, paranoid people are paranoid. It is no more invasive than Android or iOS and people have to opt in to enable any telemetry gathered from their device.

I was, however, a bit surprised by the following,

This makes it easier to understand why Microsoft has gone through great efforts to challenge the U.S. government‘s search warrant case for access to overseas data, and other governments are trying to help them do so (which is quite a change considering that some of the same agencies were investigating Microsoft a decade ago).122, 123, 124, 125, 126

There is still quite a bit of work to be done to secure the Internet, not just from criminals and rogue nation-states, but from well-meaning governments that are clueless about how technologies such as encryption work. Microsoft is increasingly finding itself in the position of advocating for its customers' privacy.127, 128, 129

Microsoft has been at the head of this fight for users’ privacy, not just because they understand that people will not use their products and services if they don’t have any privacy, but because it is the correct thing to do. As long as Microsoft is able to fight that battle, it should be safe for customers to use its products.

I don't think this is going to stop all the tinfoil hatters out there who think Microsoft is out to spy on them, but hopefully more rational people will read it.

Regards,
SB

 

[orangpelupa]

It is no more invasive than Android or iOS

I don't know about ios. But android is super invasive.

Especially it's apps on app store. Like.. A game.. Seriously. Why a game need an access to my photos, camera, and contacts?

 

[orangpelupa]

I wonder, if they change the permission wordings to easier English.

Will people still gladly accept?

Like...


- I can see your photos, including private ones, if left unprotected.
- I can know who and when you are calling.
- I can read your text message!

When installing silly ganes.

 

[zed]

Especially it's apps on app store. Like.. A game.. Seriously. Why a game need an access to my photos, camera, and contacts?

I would say in the majority of cases it doesnt use those, its just a case of the developer having checked a box or linked with a lib.
Google are being upfront about what possible privacy things could occur.
With Windows the same things could occur but you've got no way of knowing

 

[Arwin]

Which is weird because as a developer you have to check those boxes for your apps as much as on any other platform.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Grall]

Seriously. Why a game need an access to my photos, camera, and contacts?

Because Androids are generally unwilling to pay (very much, or even at all) for apps (and particularly in developing and 3rd world nations), developers must find other ways to scrounge a living. Hence your privacy goes buh-bye.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Which is weird because as a developer you have to check those boxes for your apps as much as on any other platform.

I use libs in Unity to handle Google and Apple stuff like scoreboards and IAPs. These libs provide extensive access to everything if you want, so I could, for example, use photos in my games. As such they declare use of these items even if they aren't implemented. Sometimes you can selectively remove certain permissions, but it's definitely possible that a lib can request all sorts of permissions without a game using them, and trying to undeclare them (even if possible) isn't worth the effort, probably (because everyone just says 'okay' ). There are also side-effect permissions. Just a simple thing like watching if there's an incoming call and responding could potentially open up permissions requirements because the APIs that allow watching of calls also allow access to contacts and sending messages, sort of thing. My game Footy! on iOS accesses the push notification system without ever using it as a side effect of a plugin.

At the end of the day, software has become so insanely complex that managing permissions and privacy is an epic chore. I think people are just defaulting to 'trust' or accepting spam because of the hassle. Just as people don't read T&Cs they agree to, they don't check permissions.

 

[Arwin]

It is the one thing I always check - wat permissions an app wants. And also frequently deny it notification rights for instance. But on iOS there are now apps that don't rely on ads but allow you to purchase instead. I imagine it is worse on other platforms like Android that are so rife with piracy they rarely have non-ad versions.

 

[orangpelupa]

0x800704cf windows store error in my tablet.

blah. no solution as usual.
last time i got windows store error, it only can be fixed by clean install. blargh.

Microsoft need to stop using vague error code with vague wording. If they insist, please add that detailed error in microsoft online KB.

but cant they simply add "click here to see the detailed report of this error" and basically opens a log.txt file on notepad? that should be super easy to code right? because windows already record everything internally right? (like those event logs).

 

[entity279]

Yeah, they always say search online for this code. As if it were hard to supply a link with said search

 

[orangpelupa]

Yeah, they always say search online for this code. As if it were hard to supply a link with said search

Or link it directly to Microsoft KB page